Best-selling writer Barney Saltzberg uses a light touch to interest children in reading

Assistance League of Inland North County

The Escondido philanthropy group has been a chapter of the national organization for 27 years. The local group has seven focus programs, including “Ready … Set … Read!”

Volunteers read one-on-one with children at Juniper and Central elementary schools in Escondido. The group also donates books to students and arranges author visits.

In June 2012, the league gave the Escondido Union School District a $90,000 grant for libraries to buy books. “Not only were the collections not growing, but they were dwindling,” because the books wear out, group member Connie Etheridge said.

The Assistance League helps supports philanthropy through its thrift and consignment shop at 2068 E. Valley Parkway, Escondido.

Things are bound to get silly when Barney Saltzberg is in the room. Kids are going to crack up — there’s just no way around it.

Dozens of Pauma School youngsters could hardly contain their giggles during Saltzberg’s visit last week as the best-selling children’s author and illustrator drew what he said was going to be a dog. They shrieked every time he transformed his sketch into yet another animal that was not a dog. “No, that’s a fish! No, that’s an alligator! No, that’s an elephant!”

The silliness is all right by Saltzberg and the woman who brought him to town. What better way to get children interested in reading than by introducing them to an author who will make them laugh?

“I taught for 33 years, and only once was I able to have kids meet an author … and it was so magical. It was just such a wonderful experience,” said Connie Etheridge, visiting-author coordinator for the Assistance League of Inland North County, an Escondido-based philanthropy group.

The Assistance League’s “Ready … Set … Read!” program, with annual author visits, is aimed at literacy development “to spark a love of reading,” Etheridge said.

The Assistance League hosted Saltzberg’s five-day visit last week to about 2,000 children in Escondido-area schools, including Conway, Juniper, Central and Miller elementaries in the Escondido Union School District. On Wednesday, he ventured out to rural Pauma Valley, northeast of Valley Center, for three sessions at the 303-student K-8 school.

Saltzberg artfully weaves lessons into all the laughter, goofiness, and songs like “Where Oh Where’s My Underwear.” In addition to writing and illustrating about 30 children’s books, Saltzberg has released four CDs of children’s music.

He explained how the idea came about for his latest book, “Arlo Needs Glasses,” in which a dog who loves to play catch is struggling to see the ball and discovers he needs glasses. Saltzberg showed a photo of his own dog, Arlo, trying to play catch.

“Now, I’m always looking for ideas for stories. … So I started practicing with him and drawing. I thought, what if I gave him glasses?”

He demonstrated how squiggles and simple circles and lines that might be an “oops” can turn into all sorts of characters with stories behind them.

“Have we found out where ideas come from today?” Saltzberg asked. “They come from all over the place, from a sandwich, a dog, a love of drawing.”